1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for the production of a regulator of vegetative growth and tuber development and a method of using same. More particularly, the present invention uses the growth of potato plants in a recirculating hydroponic system to produce a regulator of vegetative growth and tuber development.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Plant growth regulating substances are used commercially to regulate natural processes in plants in order to improve profitability management. These applications include, but are not limited to, accelerating the ripening of the fruit, synchronization of fruit ripening, fruit abscission and vegetative growth reduction.
Growth retardants are one of the most widely used classes of growth regulators in the horticultural industry. The primary applications include the reduction of turf height along highway, railroad and powerline right-of-ways, golf courses and sports facilities. Growth retardants are also used extensively in the greenhouse floriculture industry to develop a more compact and marketable plant and in the fruit industry to maintain small tree sizes.
In space exploration applications naturally occurring bioregulatory compounds that reduce plant size have a role in optimizing the volume utilization efficiency of a bioregenerative life support system (BLSS). By reducing the height of a plant, the number of plants per given area can be doubled or tripled, an increase that will directly improve the operational efficiency of a bioregenerative life support system in space conditions.
Plant growth regulators are also used to reduce the amount of vegetative biomass, reduce the amount of economic inputs applied to grow non-economically important components of biomass such as leaves and stems, reduce the time to maturity of the economic component of the plant and increase the uniformity of the final product. In addition to these primary benefits, a reduction in shoot growth can reduce harvest time by eliminating time requirements associated with removing excess plant material from machinery, pruning of final product and disposal of non-marketable vegetation.
Over the years, a number of different chemical compounds have been used to reduce the growth of plants. These compounds include amcymidol, amidochlore, mefluidide, maleic hydrazide, paclobutrazol, fluprimidol, femarimol and uniconazol. Of these, paclobutrazol and maleic hydrazide are the only compounds currently cleared for legal use in the United States for application as growth retardants on potatoes.
There are no commercially available compounds which are used for accelerating the induction of potato tubers. At the experimental level, the most pronounced effects on promotion of tuber formation are associated with gibberellin antagonists, such as pacloputrazol.
A compound related to jasmonic acid and tuberonic acid (12-OH-jasmonic acid) has been shown to be antagonistic to gibberellin and promote potato tuberization in tissue culture systems. Jasmonic acid and some derivatives have been isolated from a number of plant species, but are unstable in aqueous solutions. A stabilized jasmonic acid derivative (2-methyl jasmonic acid) is commercially available for the promotion of sugar accumulation in grapes.
With the exception of jasmonic acid, all of the compounds which are commercially available for the reduction of plant height and promotion of tuber formation are synthetic chemicals. Natural occurring jasmonic acid is chemically unstable, and must undergo stabilization prior to use.
Therefore, it is the object of the present invention to provide a natural organic product which is stable, and can be used to repartition the growth of plants in order to obtain a more marketable product. In particular, it is the object of the invention to provide a natural organic product which can be used for vegetative growth regulation and tuber induction.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a process for the production of a vegetative and tuber growth regulator which requires no toxic inputs and produces marketable products other than the vegetative and tuber growth regulator.